Train Your Mind to Think

Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.

Years ago I thought I knew a lot about agility; now I am fairly certain I know nothing for certain. Education is the continuous discovery of your own ignorance. I once wanted to learn everything about agility, but I now realize how impossible that is. But, luckily, I love the impossible. It is the elusive end of a goal I’ll never reach, a never-ending journey. It’s easiest to think we know everything, to ignore the critique of others to protect our own ego. We’ve all been guilty of this one time or another, I’m certain of it ;)

Yet, it is incredible how much more can be learned when we open our minds and accept that we cannot know everything. At that point, we are free to learn more than we ever have before. That is what I want out of my agility career, to learn more about all the things I never knew I never knew.

I also want to learn from everyone. It seems logical in the moment, that the best place to learn is from someone who presumably knows more than you. Yet, seminars and lessons don’t always resonate with us unless we are willing to learn from ourselves for ourselves. I once had a wise trainer tell me that in order to become a better handler, trainer, and student I had to learn to teach myself. It is teaching yourself to truly think, to understand the process of learning before attempting to learn. Because unless you understand how to recognize your own flaws, congratulate yourself on your own success, and create your own solutions, it will be difficult to learn anything from anyone. A benefit comes with that understanding, a willingness to learn from anyone. I am certain of two things; that I do not know everything about agility and that I can learn something from anyone.